TO JOY is Bergman's eighth film as director, and the fourth V.G. and I have watched so far. After THREE STRANGE LOVES, TO JOY is a minor revelation. The event-driven melodrama of the previous film is backgrounded here in favor of narrower intentions - a tightly focused character study of a married couple. The film presents characters of depth and complexity such as none of the previously viewed films had shown.
The character of the husband fascinated me most. He is introduced in an almost satiric episode highlighting his worst behavior. Petulant, shrill, and self-pitying, he is unlikeable from the start. By the end of the film, he is a man who has matured through disappointment, loss, and tragedy, and yet - remarkably - is no more likeable as a person. One of the rarest things in film is a character who is both unlikeable and sympathetic.
